In April, the non-profit School Nutrition Association, or SNA, named Kirstine Sonner — food service manager at Polk Elementary School in Ogden — the Southwest region “Manager of the Year.”

“The award recognizes the dedication, ingenuity and compassion shown by cafeteria managers who have excelled in providing high-quality, nutritious meals to students throughout the school year,” a press release on the award noted. “Kirstine Sonner’s cheerful personality creates an atmosphere of belonging in the cafeteria; she greets each student by name and with a smile. She is enthusiastic about opportunities for students to engage in special activities and she advocates for nutritious choices for students. Sonner goes above and beyond to support her school and the community. She attends back to school events to help students learn about school meals and feel comfortable in the cafeteria and to support families filling out meal application forms.

“(Sonner) is known as an extremely hard worker and a mentor. She leads the district’s manager internship program to assist aspiring foodservice managers. A team player, Sonner is always willing to cooperate with district policy and procedures while never hesitating to be a voice in problem solving. She ensures staff have the time and understanding they need to perform essential district and state training, and she empowers them with the tools and autonomy to effectively do their job.”

Sonner recently spoke with the Standard-Examiner about her 33-year career with the Ogden School District, how food service has evolved over three decades and the recent award.

‘I just fell in love with it’

Sonner told the Standard-Examiner her first brush with the Ogden School District came while still a college student.

“When I got started with the food service program, I actually was going to school up at Weber State for elementary education and I just was trying to find a job that would go along with my schooling,” she said. “My sister-in-law told me, ‘Well, the school district is always looking for subs,’ so I started subbing in the kitchens and I just fell in love with it. I love the fast pace, getting to interact with all the children, so they offered me a job.”

Sonner started out at Taylor Elementary School before moving on to Polk Elementary School where she’s been for the last 20 years.

Food Service Manager

Sonner said she and her staff of four start their work at Polk Elementary early on any given day.

“Basically I just come in and start getting everything ready in the morning and just try to get everything organized,” she said. “Working in a kitchen and doing school lunch, you have to be organized because everything is so fast paced. We have to get our stuff ready for breakfast and then after we finish breakfast service, we’ve got to start getting ready for our lunch service. And so basically I just try to get everything organized for the ladies when they come in. They all know their jobs. I have everybody rotate through our kitchen so that everybody knows how to do every job going from main dish to when we have some baking.”

She said paperwork also factors heavily into the job.

“We have production records we have to fill out showing how many we prepared for, how many we fed,” she said. “Our dietician makes up our menus and she makes sure that they are well-rounded, that we’ve got the fruits and the vegetables and our protein and carbs and of course the calories. And there’s just lots of different guidelines that the USDA has passed down to us watching the salt content, fat content.”

Sonner said she is also in charge of ordering food, keeping track of special dietary needs for individual children, organizing special food events and interacting with the kids on a regular basis.

“We really try to interact with the kids, get them excited about coming into our lunchroom,” she said. “I want it to be a safe place for them, but also a fun place that they want to be. We’re always looking for different promotions and we get lots of help from our district leadership and helping us plan and get the things that we need, whether we’re handing out little prizes and just little things The kids love everything because I’m in an elementary school —  they just think it’s exciting to just get a little fun toy for coming through the line.”

She noted she’s seen some major changes in how food service is handled at schools in her three decades of service.

“When I first started, we made everything from scratch,” she said. “We only had the one menu choice. When I started, none of our schools did breakfast in the classroom, so we would do a nice hot breakfast.”

Over time, evolutions have included additional options being added to the menu, a regular pizza day on Fridays and shifting guidelines on dietary considerations.

Sonner noted that, while cost considerations have led to schools utilizing items prepared off-site, there is still some cooking from scratch.

“Lots of stuff, we just have to cook it up and prepare it,” she said. “We do still make our lasagna from scratch, and there are certain items like our gravies. And now we use the instant potatoes instead of the whole potatoes and just different things that are more cost effective.”

However, she said there is a growing push for a return to making more items from scratch.

“I just was at our convention this week, and they’re really wanting us to kind of go back to doing more scratch foods, which I am very excited about,” she said. “I miss making the rolls from scratch, and cookies. We used to make cinnamon rolls and all kinds of fun stuff.”

‘It’s my reward right there’

Sonner said the School Nutrition Association honor came as a bit of a surprise at first.

“At first, I was very shocked, because I’ve just always just done my job,” she said. “The love of my job is taking care of the kids, not really being recognized.”

However, she said she appreciates a light being shined on the work that being a food service manager entails.

“It’s been very exciting for me to be recognized for all of my hard work, because working in school nutrition is not an easy job,” she said. “It is labor intensive. It can be stressful just as far as making sure all of your kids are getting fed, so it’s been very exciting for me.”

Sonner said she feels that she has the best job possible.

“I love my job,” she said. “I love the fast pace. I love interacting with the children.”

She said it’s ultimately the children that are the biggest reward of the job.

“It is very rewarding to just see my little kiddos every day and just get to know them and see their smiles and to make them smile,” she said. “I love getting to know all of them, knowing what they like, their special meals, so I’m always like, ‘Oh, tomorrow we’re having nachos,’ to get them all excited. Just watching them try new things and be excited about coming and eating school lunch and breakfast with us, and then also just when they come through and say, ‘Oh, you’ve got the best food,’ it’s my reward right there.”